Cajun-Style Grilled Shrimp Skewers

For a fun weekend barbecue, these Cajun-style grilled shrimp make a great appetizer or main course. Served with rice and a wedge of lemon, they are a perfect way to celebrate the ushering in of summer.

The recipe uses bell peppers and onions, but feel free to substitute other vegetables and fruits, like cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, or pineapple chunks.

Tip: Grill atop a layer of aluminum foil when using an outdoor grill for easy cleanup and to keep down flames.

2 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/3 cup olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, minced
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
handful parsley, chopped
salt
pepper
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 yellow bell pepper
1/2 large white onion
bamboo skewers, soaked in water

In a large bowl, combine olive oil, garlic, lemon, Cajun seasoning, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Add shrimp and toss to coat. Marinate for 1 to 2 hours in the refrigerator.

Preheat a grill or grill pan over medium-high heat.

Cut the bell peppers and the onion into 1-inch squares. Add vegetables to same bowl as shrimp; stir to coat with marinade. Skewer the vegetables and shrimp, alternating with pepper and onion and then shrimp. Each skewer should fit about 5 shrimp.

Grill for about 3 minutes per side or until the shrimp turn pink. Yield: 4 servings.

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Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Frosting

These easy lemon cupcakes are sure to bring a smile to the faces of anyone who eats them. The lemon zest in the cake adds a true lemon flavor, while a touch of honey lends a nice flowery scent. And the frosting, like lemonade, is sweet and tart.

If not at hand, substitute all-purpose flour for the cake flour. But remember all-purpose flour has a higher gluten content than cake flour, so if you can, use cake flour for a more delicate cupcake.

Lemon Cupcakes:
1-1/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons honey
1 lemon, zested
1/4 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake papers.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, at medium speed, cream the butter until fluffy. Add the sugar and continue to beat until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Reduce the speed to low; add the eggs, vanilla, honey, and zest. Mix until incorporated. Alternately add the dry ingredients, then the sour cream, and finish with the dry ingredients.

Divide the batter evenly in the cupcake tin using a releasable ice cream scoop. Fill each liner about 3/4 full. Bake until cupcakes are set, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Yield: 12 cupcakes.

Lemon Buttercream Frosting:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 to 3 cups confectioners sugar
1 lemon, juiced

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, at medium speed, cream the butter until fluffy. Add the confectioners sugar one cup at a time, alternating the sugar and the lemon juice; finish with the sugar. Mix until desired consistency is achieved. Add more sugar to stiffen frosting if too creamy. Yield: enough frosting for 12 cupcakes.

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Bar Room at The Modern

From the entrance of The Modern, it is evident that you are entering a sophisticated place. With its classically modern Bauhaus design, the restaurant is very inviting, not at all cold or austere as one might imagine. Sitting down and eating a meal at the Bar Room becomes a joy; the restaurant invites its patrons into its realm, in such a way that it is like joining an in-crowd rather than being set apart from it. The Bar Room is very busy with its usual crowd of business lunchers and the smattering of Europeans taking advantage of the exchange rate, but this crowdedness does not take away from its charm. In fact, we are ourselves coworkers were seated between two businessmen on one side and two European tourists on the other. This closeness in the restaurant creates a feeling of commonality among the patrons, a closeness that even allows for chatting with table neighbors.

The Bar Room menu is very unique and features mostly appetizer-size dishes as well as entree-size dishes. The note at the bottom of the menu advises patrons to choose as they please. We did just that, selecting four Alsatian-inspired appetizers to share between the two of us. The waitress helped us plan which two dishes we should have first, and what two should follow. Meanwhile I ordered a Zweigelt wine, a beautiful ruby red Austrian wine, fruity in taste and inky-red in color. It complemented the dishes perfectly. While waiting for our first foods to arrive, we munched on fresh, crusty oblong rolls and soft, hearty sourdough bread.

Our first two dishes arrived: the Tarte Flambee, which we noticed that others in the restaurant were eating as well, and the Modern Liverwurst. We immediately dug into the tart to eat it before it cooled. The menu describes it as an Alsatian thin-crust tart with creme fraiche, onions, and applewood-smoked bacon. If I had to describe it in one word it would be amazing. The tart crust is as thin as a crepe, but much more crispy, and is permeated by the apple wood smoke. The cream gives the top a slight creaminess, while the white onions do not overpower the tart as one might initially believe. Next, the Modern Liverwurst, which was the first item on the menu to catch my eye. When we asked what made it “modern,” the waitress told us that it was Chef Gabriel Kreuther’s special blend of beef, veal, and trumpet mushrooms. It had the flavor I expect of a very good liverwurst, not too beefy, but just right without being mediocre. It was accompanied by whole-grain mustard and a small sampling of pickled vegetables: sliced pickles, mushrooms, carrots, and beets; served with toasted sourdough bread, which was wrapped nicely in a crisp white napkin presented on a plate. We finished off all the bread before finishing the liverwurst, so we had to flag down a waiter for some more.

Among our next selections we enjoyed the homemade Alsatian country sausage with turnip choucroute and whole-grain mustard. The sausage burst with juice on slicing it and its sweetness was complemented by the sweetness of the melt-in-your-mouth choucroute. The dish was everything one would want in sausage and sauerkraut. For our final appetizer-size dish we had the Baekeoffe of lamb, conch, and tripe, prepared just like a cassoulet and baked in a mini cassoule. The unusual combination of proteins made for a unique dish in tomato-based gravy with a crumb topping; however I found the lamb to be tough and the tripe had an antiseptic flavor.

Ah dessert…we had been eyeing others in the restaurant eating beignets for dessert, so immediately after our table was cleared we were ready to order this dessert without looking at the dessert menu. Popularity reigns supreme at the Bar Room. We made good choices in ordering the tart and the beignets. The beignets, served like the bread before (wrapped in a napkin), were accompanied by caramel sauce, maple ice cream, and mango marmalade. They were an airy, sugar-dusted delight—perfect in every which way. The three accompaniments were great, the mango marmalade being the most interesting: tart, sweet, gooey, and tasting more of peaches than mangoes.

The service at the Bar Room is excellent: our waitress was always cheery and smiling. With every one of our compliments she showered us with grateful thanks. The servers are also very attentive, making sure to wait until patrons are finished with their meals before bringing out other dishes or courses. Also new plates and cutlery were also brought before every section of our meal. Here I noticed the restaurant uses silverware was by Georg Jensen. But what were most unique and unusual to me were the steak knives, which appeared to be folding knives. But no matter how hard we tried we couldn't fold them. (Later I found out that the knives were replicas of Laguiole knives.) Our time at the restaurant ended up being around two hours, overdoing our one-hour lunch break, but really I have no complaints because the service was consistent and reliable.

The Bar Room was a great adventure, from the design of the restaurant and the fully stacked bar, which is displayed prominently, to the excellent service and magnificent food. The restaurant does not disappoint—it is obvious from the great number of guests that it is the place to be. And the only way to get in to the restaurant without waiting an insane amount of time, which some groups do on the couches made available for that reason, is to make a reservation in advance. We originally had tried to get into the restaurant a week before without reservations and were unsuccessful in doing so. With or without reservations, the restaurant is worth a wait.

The Modern
9 West 53rd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues
New York, NY 10019
212-333-1220
Open Monday through Saturday from 12 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
Small plates range in price from $11 to $24 and large plates from $15 to $28.

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Lunetta

You can easily miss Lunetta, as we did, walking right by it at first. The Italian restaurant, an offshoot of the Brooklyn location, here in the Flatiron district, does not brandish large signage, but instead has its name and phases of the moon design painted across the top of each of its large pane-glass windows. The space looks and feels more like a French bistro, set somewhat like a theater, where on entry one walks through velvet curtains. The space is shaped like an "L" with booths of tufted brown leather lining the inner walls and outer walls beneath the windows. Simple dark brown, slightly chipped bistro chairs and tables dot the restaurant elsewhere. All the tables are topped with white marble, and the floors are blank-and-white checkered linoleum. All this gives the restaurant a throwback look.

For an early dinner the space was almost empty except for the wait and bar staff. I had originally made reservations for 5:30 p.m., but the host let us in a half hour early. We were seated at a booth set for four. It felt a bit awkward having so much space for only the two of us. The booth was not far from the bar, where a few friends of the staff were hanging out. And placed toward a corner against the mirrored wall, it offered a good vantage view of the entire restaurant and the street outside. The windows are lined with bistro curtains, which the staff keeps drawn, creating an aura of mystery for the outside passersby who constantly peak inside.

We were handed simple paper menus and offered the usual selection of waters. We soon noticed that the table was dirty, with an especially sticky spot right between us. We pointed it out to the waiter, and he cordially cleaned it up. After the bread and, in this case, a very good flowery olive oil, we were ready to order.

With many excellent antipasti to choose from, we decided upon the fried artichokes, a most unusual dish. I thought we would get a whole or half battered-and-fried artichoke. But instead it was fried artichoke leaves and sliced hearts, in chip form, fried along with a branch of rosemary and served with a slice of lemon. These artichoke chips, like potato chips but vastly better, were crunchy, salty, and permeated with rosemary. For $12 they better have been good and they were worth it. Just as a certain chain steakhouse seems to have cornered the market with the must-have fried blooming onion, so has Lunetta, I believe, with its fried artichokes. Or, I have yet to see it offered elsewhere.

Anther thing to note: I had also noticed that there were some artichoke chips on the floor between the booth and table. I guess I can consider this a sign that the appetizer is a popular item; that whoever was here before us ordered it and made a mess. I didn’t mention it to the waiter, but I simply can’t forget the lack of cleanliness of the restaurant. Looking beyond these negatives, you do notice that the restaurant’s menu has a wide selection of unique Italian offerings.

Going outside of the confines of the menu courses of primi and secondi, I chose two primi, one to share as a sort-of-second appetizer and one for myself. So, for the second appetizer, I chose the risi e bisi, a risotto with fresh peas, pancetta, and, of course, finely grated parmesan cheese. The rise e bisi, served in a bowl for easy consumption, was very interesting: the rice was a bit too al dente and the addition of the pancetta, unfortunately, made the entire dish too salty. But it was a good attempt. For our main course, we ordered the tagliatelle with braised pork and short rib ragu (from the primi) and the special of the day, sautéed monkfish with acqua pazza, which translates to “crazy water.” The tagliatelle was also slightly too salty, but had wonderful ribbons of fresh pasta covered in a subtle creamy sauce. The pork seemed a bit too dry and sometimes tasted slightly of liver, which I had to wash down with my glass of red wine. The wine, which I later looked up on the restaurant's Web site, was the Luciano Landi, Lacrima di Morro d’Alba. The wine was great, very fruity and slightly sweet; I highly recommend it. The monkfish special was very unique, first, in that, it was served in a bowl like the risotto before, served with simple vegetables like green beans, potatoes, and green peppers; all poured over with the crazy broth. The crazy water had the subtle sweet taste of a good seafood stock, and the fish was tender and meaty, sautéed in a very light batter.

Onto what I believe is the part of the meal that should never be left out, the dessert. It was very difficult to choose, with such offerings as panna cotta, ricotta cheesecake, chocolate torta, tiramisu, tartufo, crostata, and sorbet and gelato. I couldn’t choose, so I asked the waiter for his recommendation; it was the ricotta lemon cheesecake, drizzled with honey, and sprinkled with pine nut brittle. The cake was a large square, a pretty hefty size from what I was expecting. So far all the dishes were small manageable sizes made for multi-course dinners. The cheesecake was surely designed to please: it was thick, creamy, rich, and dense with that hint of lemon, all nicely complimented by the sweetness of the honey drizzle and crunch of the brittle.

If you look beyond the cleanliness issue, Lunetta offers a good time with good service. To give a fair review I would have to try the Brooklyn location, which I eventually hope to, but until then Lunetta in Manhattan needs a bit of work.

Lunetta
920 Broadway at 21st Ave
New York, NY 10010
212-533-3663
Open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Antipasti range in price from $6 to $15, primi from $14 to $18, and secondi from $15 to $26.

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